Three former town hall leaders are standing for election in Rochdale at Thursday's council elections - join our live coverage of the results as they come in ...

Three former town hall leaders are standing for election in Rochdale at Thursday's council elections.

Richard Farnell, who was the country's youngest council leader when he took power in 1986, is bidding to return to the chamber after a 20-year absence.

His Labour colleague Allen Brett - who led the council for a brief spell in 2004 - is also running, and will stand against former Lib Dem council leader Irene Davidson in a battle of the political big-hitters in Milnrow.

Meanwhile the current town hall chief, Colin Lambert, is up for re-election and will be looking to retain his West Heywood seat for Labour.

One third of the council's 60 seats are up for grabs this May and on paper the ruling Labour group – defending eight wards - have the most to lose.

However, those seats are all in areas where the party traditionally polls well and the group would be likely to retain control if voters followed normal patterns.

The real battle for control of the council chamber could take place after the election and within the Labour party itself as senior councillors jockey for position.

The opposition Conservative group has seen its numbers swell to 18 in recent months by picking up disillusioned defecting Lib Dems.

They will be looking to see if the likes of Jean Ashworth, Peter Evans and Mohammad Sharif, who have all joined the party in the last 18 months, can retain their seats for their adopted party.

Mr Sharif's Milkstone and Deeplish seat could be particularly interesting. The ward has a large Asian population and has traditionally backed the Lib Dems.

Conservative party chair Baroness Warsi has already visited the area to bolster the Conservative campaign and to celebrate the party's ability to diversify its support away from its traditional grass-roots base.

The Lib Dems, torn apart by internal squabbles before the last election, received a kicking by voters who dumped them into third place.

Half of their remaining 10 seats are up for election and they will be hoping to at least retain their strength despite Nick Clegg's national polling woes.

The election also marks 18 months since the town hall's short-lived Lib Dem and Conservative coalition fell apart and was replaced by Labour – first as a minority administration, and later with an outright majority.

Its leaders were quick to blame the coalition for mistakes - but they won't be able to pin the latest round of town hall spending cuts on their predecessors.

There have been some particularly contentious decisions to cut homeless shelters and the countryside service.

The key question is likely to be: will voters blame the Labour group in Rochdale, who have decided what to cut; or the government, who took the money away in the first place?

The polls close at 10pm on Thursday - we'll have live coverage of the count and the results as they come in. Joiin reporter Chris Jones on our live blog below from 10pm ( click here to view blog on a mobile device)